Tajikistan's first-ever Olympic champion, hammer thrower Dilshod Nazarov, has returned to Dushanbe from Qatar where he was supposed to participate in the world championships that are taking place there from September 27 to October 6. But he was suspended over a failed doping test.
Recall, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which oversees integrity issues in international athletics, including doping, said on September 24 that Nazarov’s sample from the 2011 world athletics championships in Daegu, South Korea, contained a metabolite of oral turinabol.
The AIU noted that Nazarov and other doping suspects are “suspended temporarily…prior to a final decision at a hearing conducted under the IAAF [International Association of Athletic Federations] Anti-Doping Rules or the Integrity Code of Conduct.
On return to Dushanbe, Dilshod Nazarov wrote on his Facebook page, “Dear friend, you have probably heard that I was banned from representing my county. I can compete at the World championship because I was charged with using prohibited drug. Pease give me some time so that I could gather my thoughts. I do not want to show emotions. I want to present the facts. I will publish my statement soon. The truth is on my side.”
The 37-year-old hummer thrower Dilshod Nazarov won the first Olympic gold medal for Tajikistan at Rio 2016.
Dilshod Nazarov (born May 6, 1982) is a Tajikistani track and field athlete who specializes in the hammer throw. He has represented his country at the Olympic Games on four occasions (in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016), winning the gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, the first gold medal for Tajikistan in the history of the Olympic Games.
He has competed seven times at the World Championships in Athletics (2005 to 2017), but has been most successful at regional competitions: he won medals at four consecutive Asian Athletics Championships and was the hammer champion at the Asian Games in 2006, 2010 and 2014. He won his first global medal (silver) in 2010 at the IAAF Continental Cup.
His personal best for the event is 80.71 meters, set in 2013.
